This was a “back to basics” month for me. I spent every single day of the month except the 31st (when I dropped the ball) working on my presentation and first shot. How many of you have spent that much time in the last ten years
Presentation
The presentation is perhaps the single most important skill in the defensive deployment of a handgun. If you can’t get the gun out of the holster and up on target efficiently and quickly, not much else matters. I wish I could tell you about a bunch of cool-guy stuff, but I worked on the presentation.
During various days I focused on various things. I tried to “chunk” the presentation into areas where I wanted or or needed the attention. A few specific points of performance I worked on were:
- Marrying up the strong and weak hands. Occasionally I have found myself fouling the placement of my left hand. Really focusing on this allowed me to improve my weak-hand placement.
- Gripping the gun hard. I worked really, really hard on a hard grasp of the firearm this month. In fact, I put blisters on the tips of two of my fingers.
- Target focus versus front sight focus. Every day I did a walk back from 3 yards to 15 yards. At the range I had previously identified some information I identified the ranges at which a hard threat focus worked for a headshot (3-4 yards) and a center-mass shot (up to 7 yards). I identified the ranges at which a subpar/rough sight picture would suffice for a headshot (3-5 yards) and a center-mass shot (7-10 yards). Finally, I identified the ranges at which I absolutely required a hard, front-sight focus. I used this information in dry practice.
- Drawing with my backpack on. A lot of guys carry EDC packs. How many of them have ever practice drawing with an EDC pack on? I was really, really gratified to find that my draw is not obstructed in the least by my EDC pack.
- AIWB and OWB. I carry in AIWB about 90% of the time I am out of the house. When I’m around the property I carry strong side OWB at roughly 3 o’clock. With the manual labor I do it’s just much, much easier to carry that way. the times I’m carrying OWB out of the house are when hiking, on SAR missions, etc. I’ve read some trainers that recommend only carrying in one position; to be honest, I don’t think it matters all that much if you practice.
My Results
June was much better for me than May. I got back on track and didn’t miss a day. Six months of this year are behind us and I have only missed three days of dry practice. So far I’m up to 24 hours of firearms practice in dry practice alone. Minutes quickly turn into hours and it’s not hard to find ten minutes a day. What have you done?
Below are my day-by-day results of the past month.
January 1 – 15: 150 minutes, January 16 – 31: 160 minutes
February 1 – 15: 150 minutes, February 16 – 29: 140 minutes
March 1 – 15: 150 minutes, March 16 – 31: 160 minutes
April 1 – 30: 300 minutes, May 1 – 30: 280 minutes
June 1 – 30: 280 minutes
July 1: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 2: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 3: 10 minutes presentation, OWB with backpack
July 4: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 5: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 6: 10 minutes presentation, OWB with backpack
July 7: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 8: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 9: 10 minutes presentation OWB with backpack
July 10: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 11: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 12: 10 minutes presentation, OWB with backpack
July 13: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 14: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 15: 10 minutes presentation, OWB with backpack
July 16: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 17: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 18: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 19: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 20: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 21: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 22: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 23: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 24: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 25: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 26: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 27: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 28: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 29: 10 minutes presentation, OWB
July 30: 10 minutes presentation, AIWB
July 31: 0 minutes
Monthly Target: 310 minutes
Monthly Actual: 300 minutes
Cumulative Target to Date: 2,130 minutes
Cumulative Actual to Date: 2,090 minutes (34 hours, 50 minutes)
Cumulative Actual w/ Carbine & Shotgun: 2,690 minutes (44 hours, 50 minutes)
Current Streak: 0 days (138 previous)
Tobacco Free: YES
Next Month
August will see me doing a refresh of primary, secondary, and tertiary skills: presentation, trigger, reloads, malfunctions, SHO, and WHO. If you’re not dry practicing, get on it!
